Some of the many weapons that Escondido city officials and local farmers use in their relentless war with gophers.

The small rodents burrow underground, chew up valuable crops and make sports fields look like they’ve been bombed in a war. And gophers are elusive because they spend nearly all of their lives underground, and are active mostly at night.

Opinions vary on which methods are the most effective and humane, but no one disputes that gophers are a big problem in Escondido that needs constant attention.

“If you let it slide with gophers, you’ve got your own little population explosion,” said Eric Larson, executive director of the San Diego County Farm Bureau.

City officials are coping this winter with such an explosion on the medians of Centre City Parkway, said Ed Domingue, the city’s public works director.

“Because of the really good weather this winter, the gophers went nuts and started populating,” said Domingue, who had city crews spread poison bait along the medians this month. “The gophers have been creating holes and tearing up the landscaping.”

The city also struggles with gophers in Kit Carson Park, where the clever and resilient animals burrow holes in playing fields that can turn ankles, twist knees and cause other injuries.

Escondido’s farmers, who account for 20 percent of San Diego County’s agricultural production, struggle even more than the city, said Jill Litschewski, who grows citrus and protea flowers on her 6-acre property in southeastern Escondido.

“Sometimes you think you’ve got them all, and lo and behold you’ve got fresh holes,” she said. “One gopher can decimate a large area because their tunnels are really extensive.”

Litschewski said she spends hours and thousands of dollars devising elaborate strategies to kill gophers. She places metal traps on the edges of tunnels and digs her own holes to lure gophers in.

“It’s become like a game — a hard game,” she said. “I’ve been battling this one gopher for a long time, and he’s clearly winning.”

And with the spring breeding season nearly beginning, Litschewski said things will probably get worse.

She said her love of nature and wildlife made her initially reluctant to launch a search-and-destroy mission against the gophers.

“The first time I killed a gopher I cried for 20 minutes,” she said. “But they took out a quarter of my proteas, two fig trees and two apricot trees. And one reason there are so many is that I took out the coyotes — their top predator.”

Many farmers and homeowners have put up owl boxes hoping to attract that predator to live on their land, but Litschewski said she hasn’t tried that yet.

Litschewski said she’s refused to pump deadly gas into the gopher tunnels or spread poison bait — two popular ways to kill gophers — because she thinks trapping the rodents is more humane.

“I know I would hurt myself if I gassed them like in ‘Caddyshack,’” she said, referring to the 1980 movie in which Bill Murray plays a hapless greens keeper who nearly goes insane trying to kill the small rodents.

He first tries gassing the gophers and spraying powerful flumes of water down their tunnels, but when those methods fail he sets off a series of explosives that destroy most of the golf course.

Litschewski said there are other reasons she opts for traps.

“Poisoning is a long, slow death for them,” she said. “Plus a hawk or condor could eat them after they die — it’s secondary poisoning.”

Strategically placing traps on her property requires her to think like a gopher and anticipate where traps will work best, she said.

“I’ve done research into their behavior, which helps me pick and choose where to place the traps,” said Litschewski, who works as a math and science instructor at Cal State San Marcos.

Traps, which kill gophers instantly by snapping their necks, work best when she burrows them next to a gopher tunnel in a spot where the animals seem likely to dig in the future, she said.

Litschewski said she’s also tried surrounding her plants with metal mesh to protect them, but that approach takes even more time because the plants need to be protected one-by-one.

Many farmers and residents with large properties don’t have that much patience, said Kevin Grangetto, whose family owns the local Grangetto’s Farm & Garden Supply chain.

“Trapping is more time-consuming because you have to dig down,” he said. “More people use poison because it’s easier.”

Grangetto said selling poison and traps for gophers is a big part of his business, and that tutoring people is frequently required.

“Some people come in completely clueless about what to do about the gophers,” he said.

A strictnine product called “Gopher Getter” is the most popular type of poison, he said. And the stores sell a variety of traps.

He said some alternate methods include sonic pellets, which emit sounds that are unpleasant to gophers but inaudible to humans.

Litschewski said she’s heard of some other unconventional remedies, such as placing peanut butter or bubble gum where gophers can eat them. Some say those foods sicken gophers.

Finding a surefire strategy is a long-term goal of Litschewski’s, she said.

“If I could figure out a way to get rid of gophers, I’d be a very rich woman,” she said.